Raising money for your startup is not a black art, a magic trick
or a secret gift that’s bestowed on the chosen few. Successful
fundraising is not restricted to the educated, the young, the
beautiful, the cool or the famous. It’s a process that takes
planning,
hard work and more than a little luck.

Fundraising doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a gestation period
of around 9 months. The process of raising a round of funding,
selling your company or having a baby all take around the same
length of time. All three processes are kicked off in a similar
way—with the creation of a ‘team’, they then go through several
distinct phases and, after one or more ‘near-death’ experiences,
they all conclude with some form of painful, stressful event.